Adaptec 5805 HBA JBOD disks not visible

[MastrBlastr]

Hi,

When I configure the disks connected to my Adaptec 5805 controller card as JBODs, they do not show up in Freenas 9.3. When I configure the disks as morphed volumes (so single volume per disk), the volumes are accessible to Freenas.
Naturally, I would like to have the disks working as JBODs instead of morphed volumes, since the SMART-information is hidden from Freenas while in morphed mode.

On http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.os.freebsd.stable/89041, I've read other people talking about this problem. It seems it would be a driver related problem in FreeBSD...?

However, on I read in the Freenas-documentation on supported cards, that the 5805 should be supported (https://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/CURRENT/hardware/support.html).

I have 2 questions:
a) can anyone confirm that this "JBOD-invisible" problem with Adaptec 5805 could be indeed driver related? In that case, is there a fix available for this problem?

b) If necessary, I'm prepared to buy another HBA like the IBM M1015 or the LSI 9240-8i, but I would like to have some confirmation that with these cards the JBOD-disks will be available to the Freenas-system. Any advice?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Ericloewe]

If the disks don't contain any information yet, they'll definitely work with an M1015/LSI 9211/LSI9207/other rebrands.

If they already have valuable data, and if the adaptec wrote stuff to them to identify them as JBOD, it might be more complicated.

 

[MastrBlastr]

Thanks for your reply. This disks are still empty, so no problem to re-initialize them on another controller.

Have you ever heared about a similar problem with an HBA where JBODs are not visible, while volumes created on the card do show up in Freenas / FreeBSD?

 

[Ericloewe]

Not quite the same issue, but problems with misbehaving controllers are nothing new, unfortunately. It would be good if something besides LSI worked properly, but I'm not holding my breath - unless Intel decides to finally start selling the SATA controller it uses in their PCHs.

 

[Scott Aldinger]

Disks should show up as /dev/pass*
Web gui does not display them

 

[Ericloewe]

Disks should show up as /dev/pass*
Web gui does not display them

That does not sound good at all.

 

[Mirfster]

Not thinking this card does normal passthrough/IT Mode... Looking at the manual it seems like you have to make a JBOD...? "Using the ACU to Create and Manage JBODs". As well, the Specs seem to only mention RAID Levels.


BTW, The links you provided are for FreeBSD not FreeNas. Even though FreeNas is based on FreeBSD not everything is the same...

 

[Mirfster]

Forgot to mention that per CyberJock's "Hardware recommendations (read this first)" (linked in my sig) he mentions:

Random RAID controllers that are operating in RAID mode (showing virtual or logical devices to FreeNAS) are a very bad idea. If your controller costs more than a few hundred dollars, it may not be a good choice for FreeNAS.

If the controller you want to use is an Adaptec, Dell Perc, Highpoint, or some no-name brand you shouldn't even try to use them. All of these may or may not "work" but you'll find out later they don't properly handle SMART monitoring, SMART testing, passing of errors from the disk to the system, etc. Don't put your data at risk and go with *any* of these brands. You can thank us for saving your data later. They also can cause major performance problems.

If you are using a Dell Perc and think that when we say "JBOD" we mean RAID0 of single disks, you are in error. JBOD is not the same as a RAID0 of a single disk, and you are making a grave error by thinking otherwise.

So maybe you want to just forget this controller and grab a HBA..

/Side Note: I use Dell Perc H200's that are able to be cross-flashed.